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If you hadn't given Wengler all the advice on potential subjects I'd have never known the Sonoran Desert in your sig meant the USA.

More specifically this is the Arizona part of the Sonoran Desert. Most of it is in Mexico. The (ubiquitous) Saguaro Cactus in the picture is unique to this state, and grows here in abundance. If you see them in a movie... it was shot here... not Texas.

Wild horses roam the open desert (posted on the wild animal thread), and coyotes howl (but usually not in my neighborhood).

Eddie I like the fog one, it is a good composition and fog looks cool anyhow. TheWengler, those are both excellent. After some thought, the second one is the better of the two and as such is fantastic. Specifically, the rock really helps balance the foreground.

Y'all be tired of this mountain range by the time I go to China, I have some others I like too if I have time.

Any help would be appreciated because my sunsets plain suck by comparison.

Grads for sure. I use them on almost everything. I don't use any ND filters. Sometimes I use the CPL if I need to cut out some light. I also use it to reduce reflections on wet rocks.

As for light, I like shooting in more diffused light. This means, sun behind a cloud or after the sun has set. This is where my water blur comes from. The last 4 from me in this thread were all taken in that type of light. Clouds can also add a lot so shoot when the weather is changing (storm coming or going). You might get rained on or you might get a fantastic shot.

For metering, I shoot in manual mode. I try to keep it at my base ISO. I use f/16 if I have something in the foreground. As for SS, 1/4 - 1 second is pretty good for capturing motion w/o turning the water into a mist.

I shoot in RAW so WB is always on Auto for landscapes. Typically the shots come out a little too blue when shooting at dusk so I warm them up. This can really help bring out the colors in light colored rocks and it makes the sand look better. Don't go so far that you lose the pop in your blues though.

Compositionally, I like a strong foreground element or texture and not a lot of clutter in the shot. Motion really stands out when you have something really sharp in the middle of all the blurring. It's also easier to use the grads when you don't have anything you don't want silhouetted rising above the horizon.

Lastly, post processing...shots don't always come out with the light perfectly balanced so sometimes a separate RAW conversion needs to be blended and sometimes dodging and burning will do the trick.

That's all I can think of for now. Any other questions feel free to ask.

Edit: One more thing on grads...you don't always have to align them with the horizon, but rather where there's a transition in light. Sometimes it's a shadow or the shoreline.

Last edited by TheWengler; 02-28-2009 at 03:05 AM.

Lukas

Camera: Anonymous
I could tell you but I wouldn't want you to get all pissy if it's the wrong brand